Do you have trouble sticking to a diet because of your family commitments?

If so, then before you start another diet, sit down somewhere quiet and say these words to yourself:

I matter
I am important
I am worth making an effort for

You see, when we are young we think we’re very important. We look after our appearance, we watch our weight and we please ourselves. Then we get married, have babies and suddenly, like a total eclipse, everything changes.

Instead of being free to please ourselves, we are sucked into a daily routine of nappies, feeds, sterilized bottles, trips to the doctor and a thousand other duties. On top of this we may have a part time job, a house to clean, a husband to feed and a host of in-laws and parents to please.

It seems like a never-ending treadmill. We don’t have time to meet friends, we don’t have time for sex and often we can’t even have a bath or go to the toilet without the children hammering on the door. Its enough to give anyone a nervous breakdown!

Somehow, we survive. But its a struggle! We have to manage on six hours sleep, we have to develop an extra pair of hands and grow eyes in the back of our head. It gets a little easier when the kids go to school but its still exhausting. We still have to shop, cook, clear away, wash, iron, vacuum, mend, drive and do a million things besides.

Not surprisingly, all this has a huge effect on us. We become so used to doing things for our children, our husband and our home that we completely forget about ourselves.
Result? We start to think that we don’t matter anymore.

Then one day we get the shock of our life. We discover we are 40 pounds (3 stone) overweight! So we rush out and start dieting. Do we lose weight? No. Not usually. Why not? Because deep down we don’t think that we matter. So we don’t think it matters what we look like. So after a week or two, we give up.

You see in order to lose weight we have to make changes to the way we live.
For example, we have to change our shopping habits, our cooking habits and our eating habits. In addition, we may decide to join a slimming class which means arranging transport and maybe a baby-sitter.

But unless we feel that our appearance is important enough to justify making these changes, then the moment we run into difficulty we give up. This is why so many dieters stop dieting.

They don’t feel they’re worth the effort. So they give up and 12 months later they are even fatter.

Don’t make the same mistake!
I don’t care if you’re 280 pounds (20 stone). You still matter!
So does your health, so does your weight and so does your appearance!
So keep saying to yourself: I matter! I matter! Because if you don’t, you’ll never lose weight.

Remember: you may be fat today, but tomorrow you could easily be on the road to a lovely new figure. For example, last week, one of my dieters weighed in at exactly 154 pounds (11 stone). How does she feel? Fabulous! Yet two years ago, she was 294 pounds (21 stone) and a complete wreck.